Saving a Life
by A Hopeful Voice
Summary: "She never wanted this—this pain, this suffering, this loneliness.  Her friends could never assuage this loneliness that she was feeling.  No broken heart had ever felt this bad." Susan receives help from strangers after her siblings' deaths.


**This is pretty short, and mostly about a certain Pevensie, but Mary Poppins and Bert are very significant to the story. This is part of my _His Advantage_ series, but that's not important because this stands alone. However, if you're interested, there's information on my profile. Please review and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia or Mary Poppins, which is very, very sad. You can make me feel better by reviewing! :)**

**Also, there's an A/N at the end, which I don't usually do, but I felt some more explaining was in order.**

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><p><strong>Saving a Life<strong>

The former Queen strolled through the park as if it were a normal day, having forgotten that she used to be a Queen. To her, it was a childhood game that was long forgotten, except by her siblings who refused to let it go. The siblings that were now gone. The siblings that had left her behind. The siblings that lost interest in her when she lost interest in their silly games that they had played when they were children. How was she supposed to feign interest in something so childish?

The young woman would never know.

The sky was bleak, matching the woman's attitude. She wanted to be happy again, wanted to be painless again, wanted her siblings again. They had only been gone for five days, but it seemed like a lifetime. When she had shunned them from her frivolous—as she now saw it—lifestyle, she hadn't wanted them gone _forever_. But it was almost as if her anger had killed them. Almost as if _she_ had killed them. But that was ridiculous. She would never kill her brothers and sister. She loved them, more than anything.

She never showed it. And now the world seemed dark without them. Life had gone on, but she wanted to die. She wanted to _die_! Life was meaningless without them. Life was never going to be good enough without them, even if she hadn't treated them like it.

The young woman lifted her face to the sky, tears running down her cheeks, through her dark hair, and onto her black coat. Her eyes were shut to the grey clouds, and her hands slightly raised above her sides, as if to catch the rain that threatened to fall.

She never wanted this—this pain, this suffering, this _loneliness_. Her friends could never assuage this loneliness that she was feeling. No broken heart had ever felt this bad.

She blindly made her way over to a bench and crumpled down on it, burying her face in her hands, wanting to rip her hair out or claw her eyes out. Any other kind of physical pain would be better than this heartache.

The young woman felt a presence pass in front of her. "Are you alright, miss?" a man's voice asked with a thick cockney accent. She nodded, too ashamed of her state to look up. She hoped he would walk away and forget the whole matter. "Are ya sure? Ya don' look it," he said.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, her polished voice shining through the tears. "I just want to be alone."

"Alright, miss," he said. "But me name's Bert in case you ever need som'un to talk to. I'm always 'round here somewhere."

She said nothing, and the man left her in silence. After a few moments, the tears subsided, and the young woman stood and walked with no destination in mind. She simply walked and walked and walked until she found herself in front of St. Paul's Cathedral.

There was an old woman sitting on the steps, feeding the birds. A younger woman in a bright blue coat stood next to her, also feeding the birds. The younger woman in the blue coat noticed the sad young woman staring and smiled at her. "Are you alright?" she asked kindly.

She wanted so badly to say that she was fine, but somehow couldn't. Something in her immediately trusted this woman more than she had trusted a stranger before. "No," she murmured.

The woman in the blue coat smiled softly and offered her hand out to the young woman. She took it, and the woman in the blue coat pulled her up the steps and sat down, offering some of the bird feed in her hands to the young woman. The young woman poured a little onto the step beside her for one of the birds, who immediately began to eat it.

After a few moments, the woman in the blue coat asked, "Do you feel better now?"

"Yes," Susan Pevensie answered softly.

"I'm glad," the woman in the blue coat said. "You are never alone, you know."

"What?" Susan asked.

"You are never alone," she repeated. "He is always with you. You've known Him for years, even though you've gone astray." Susan felt that this woman knew more about herself than she ever could. Who could she be talking about? "You must find Him here, though." She looked up at the cathedral. "This might be a good place to start."

Susan looked up at the cathedral and felt something stir inside her that she hadn't felt in a long time. She hadn't felt it since…well, since she played those silly childish games with her brothers and sister. Something in Susan realized that maybe they weren't silly games after all. Maybe she really had been a Queen… When she turned back to the woman, she had stood and begun to walk away, with her umbrella held over her head.

"Wait!" Susan shouted more loudly than was really necessary, getting to her feet and startling some birds. She ran after the woman and quickly caught up to her. "Who are you?" Susan asked.

"I'm Mary Poppins," the woman in the blue coat said. "And you are?"

"Susan Pevensie," she answered, but felt that Mary Poppins already knew who she was. "I just wanted to say…thank you. I think…I think you saved me."

Mary Poppins smiled. "No," she corrected. "I just started the process." And then the woman in the blue coat turned and walked away.

Susan stood there for a few moments, staring after the strange woman and wondering who she was. Maybe she was an angel, or maybe she was from the strange world that her siblings claimed that she had been to—a world that didn't seem quite so far away after all. A world called Narnia. How strange that the woman would speak with her for a few minutes, and then Susan would remember Narnia and realize that perhaps it wasn't really a pretend world.

The Gentle Queen finally began to walk away, back to the park where the day had begun. It wasn't noticeable to her, but she walked a little taller with a small spring in her step. To people who witnessed the young woman's walk, she looked regal, as if she were royalty. Her puffy, red eyes seemed bright and confident, as if she suddenly had a purpose in life.

And to Susan, the heartache seemed lessened and while she still missed her siblings, the grief subsided a little as she realized where she came from and that everything was going to be alright.

Susan was going to live because she had found hope. And it was all thanks to two mysterious strangers who had reached out to her on a dreary Tuesday morning.

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><p><strong>Hopefully this got you thinking! Yes, Mary was alluding to Aslan and the religious themes in the Narnia booksmovies. Ignore it if you wish. And I know that Mary and Bert didn't live in the 1940s. Again, this is part of a series, in which things will be explained, so deal with it for now.**

**And if you noticed, Susan's name wasn't said until Mary had begun the saving process. That was intentional, as I wanted it to seem that Susan was losing her sense of self with her family's death.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this! Please review and tell me what you thought! :)**


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